Overview
- Barcelona beat CE Europa 4-1 in a behind-closed-doors friendly on Friday, using the game chiefly to build player fitness and assess academy talent.
- Goals came from Ibrahim Diarra, Héctor Fort, Ebrima Tunkara and Álex González while Europa’s Flavio scored the visitors’ lone goal.
- Several first-team players were absent for managed rehabilitation or illness, with Ronald Araujo and Alejandro Balde on individual programmes and Hafiz Gariba sidelined by a fever.
- Marc‑André ter Stegen played the entire second half despite ongoing loan talks, and new signing Karim Adeyemi was present at the training ground but did not feature.
- Barcelona will travel to Birmingham next week for a training camp with scheduled friendlies against Birmingham City on July 31 and Preston North End on August 4, which will give further chances to test the club’s two-track, load-management pre-season plan and advance the most promising La Masia prospects.